The I-PASS dilemma

Should state build more lanes--or wait for more drivers?

November 17, 2003|By Chicago Tribune.

The small gadget was supposed to revolutionize the state's toll roads, enabling motorists who paid tolls electronically to breeze along the highway without stopping, instead of sitting in long lines, digging for change to throw in a basket.

But a decade after the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority distributed its first

I-PASS transponder, fewer than half of rush-hour motorists are enrolled in the program and a painful stop-and-go crawl continues to plague the roads at peak travel times.

Drivers' reluctance to embrace I-PASS, which celebrates its 10th anniversary Monday, poses a significant hurdle for the authority because electronic tolling constitutes the backbone of its future plans.

To relieve congestion and encourage

I-PASS use, the agency is considering reserving more toll lanes exclusively for I-PASS motorists and steering cash customers to the side or even off the main road to pay tolls.

But with I-PASS customers in the minority, rush-hour lines at toll plazas continue, and so does resentment, making it hard to sell proposals such as an increase in tolls to pay for a massive reconstruction plan.

Since coming to the toll authority earlier this year, Executive Director Jack Hartman has made I-PASS a top priority, which has helped increase the number of active transponders by 23 percent in the past year. Still, only 41 percent of rush-hour motorists use I-PASS, far below the 75 percent rate the agency once hoped to achieve by January 2002.

"Has it met my expectations?" asked Naperville resident Sheila Russell, whose family signed up for I-PASS in the mid-1990s. "If my expectations were to expect the glitches, yes."

For Russell, the glitches came in the form of being double-billed for tolls. Last summer, she received violation notices, saying she hadn't paid six tolls. When she questioned the bill, she was told that she had paid half of them.

So far, Illinois officials haven't offered incentives for I-PASS customers such as discounted tolls that are used in Texas and on some roads in New Jersey.

Carmela Serritella of Lombard resisted getting I-PASS because she didn't want to put the money on her credit card, a common way to set up an account. Now, she owes thousands in unpaid tolls and fines, some of which she blamed on faulty machines, though she admits to driving through I-PASS lanes when she couldn't merge into cash-paying lanes.

Other alleged scofflaws have enrolled in

I-PASS to avoid future fines, Serritella refuses.

"I'm not going to get an I-PASS because I'm going to try to use other roads if I can," she said. "I'm not going to give them any more money."

Motorists' adoption of I-PASS was slow, in part because the tollway charged a $38 deposit for each transponder.

In 2000, the agency switched to simpler, cheaper transponders and a year later lowered the deposit for most motorists to the current $10. Usage shot up, with the toll authority celebrating the sale of its one-millionth transponder in September.

Looking forward, Hartman believes adding I-PASS-only lanes will help boost usage rates. But that approach has been questioned, with one consultant saying that I-PASS lanes shouldn't be added until the number of drivers paying tolls electronically justifies it.

"It's the chicken and the egg," Hartman said. "They say it doesn't merit an I-PASS lane because you don't have the rate high enough. I say, 'How are you going to get the rate high enough if you don't have the I-PASS lane?' "